Keeping an eye on those Islamo-commies at Guardian's 'Comment is free' blog.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Anti-Israel hatefest on Guardian

Anti-Israel sentiment is no novelty for Guardian Unlimited, but today it has attained new depths of puerile resentment against the Jewish state.

Ahdaf Soueif has penned an article entitled 'Only sanctions will stop this brutal campaign'. Starting off with the customary emotional encitement in order to invite sympathy, he totally omits any acts of wrongdoing by Palestinians. This must be among one of the most one-sided accounts on the Middle East complexities I have ever seen expressed on Guardian.

Unsurprisingly, his emotive appeal has elicited strong responses. This one from the commenter Goodfairy is worth a mention:

The EU must make amends for their aiding and abetting Israel in the murderous collective punishment in Gaza which has led to the current situation. I propose that until there is a TOTAL withdrawal of Israel behind the green line (including abandoning ALL settlements) that the EU should:

1. End ALL the favourable trade deals it has with Israel.

2. Impose graduated sanctions on Israel leading to total economic isolation over, say, two months, if Israel doesn't comply (As we did to the democratically elected Government of Palestine)

3. Place a total embargo on all arms sales (including spare parts, ammunition) until the Palestinian issue is resolved.

4. Again, paralleling the moves against Palestine the EU should threaten massive penalties against ANY banks or financial institutions which facilitate any financial transaction involving; or transfers of money to Israel.

5. Refuse Israeli airlines landing rights in any European country or the right to fly over them.(Overflight rights to be refused to ANY nation flying planes to Israel.

6. Threaten to sanction any transnational companies (Intel for example) who set up subsidiaries in Israel.

7. Supply the most sophisticated anti-aircraft technology to all Arab states likely to be threatened by Israel.

8. Ban travel by Israeli citizens in Europe.

This we could do for starters, say for 3 months, to match the measures we ACTUALLY DID take against Palestine. If after 3 months Israel has still not withdrawn behind the Green Line, then we should start looking at some SERIOUS measures; starting with some enforcement of UN resolutions.

Quite a frenzy. But Guardian goes further. It wants to invoke British plans for war with Israel. Yep, you've heard right. Read this article and read the comments. Frightening stuff indeed.

No it didn't you tool! As the standfirst has it, 'Before the invasion of Egypt, British military chiefs were drafting plans for action against Israel'. It was an article about the events of 1956! Sheesh...

Your link to Ahdaf Soueif's article doesn't seem to lead anywhere, so I can't check your assessment of it. But judging by the title of your post - Anti-Israel hatefest on Guardian - I doubt if I would agree.

You state that it starts with an 'emotional encitement in order to invite sympathy' which you appear to believe is an invalid approach. And yet pro-Israel comment after pro-Israel comment on CiF either invokes the memory of the Jewish holocaust or plays to European guilt over centuries of Jewish persecution with completely unsubstantiated accusations of anti-semitism.

You state that Soueif's article is 'one of the most one-sided accounts on the Middle East complexities I have ever seen expressed on Guardian [sic]', but provide no explanation of the complexities that Soueif has supposedly avoided.

You hold up for disapproval a comment by Goodfairy, but do not provide a rebuttal of any kind, simply saying '[q]uite a frenzy'. This is simply argument by exclamation mark: oow, look at this, isn't it just awful!!!

All of this is beside the point however, which is: why do you not simply post this on the CiF site? If you have a penetrating argument that will dismantle Soueif's article, why not share it with all of the readers of the article? Rather than tucking it away here where a handful of people will see it. Or are you afraid that it is your analysis that will be completely dismantled?

Anyway, you are guaranteed the last word if you choose to reply to this comment, since I see no point in returning to this blog.